Your INFINITELY "big screen"

This weekend is the time of year when, at least in the US, much attention becomes riveted to screens in family rooms and living rooms in homes around the nation, as people gather together to watch the Super Bowl. The fact that nearly as much attention and discussion will be lavished upon the commercials and advertisements as will be devoted to analyzing the game over the next few days following the event only goes to show that the entire spectacle in some sense can be seen as a gargantuan commercial or advertisement of some sort (the question of "an advertisement for what?" will be left to the reader to contemplate, or not, as desired).

Much attention will also be devoted to the size of the screens around which people will gather -- and new and larger and more densely-pixelated (more densely-megapixelated) screens will be purchased or rented for the occasion.

But however wonderful the screens we hang on our walls or carry around in our pockets and purses become, through the continued and accelerating onrush of technology, they will never (it seems safe to declare) become actually infinite in size or depth. 

And yet, we have at our disposal on nearly every clear night a "big screen" of truly unsurpassed wonderfulness, and one which is in fact infinite, incapable of being measured or bounded with dimensions, which we can go outside and enjoy at virtually no cost, if it is at all possible to do so.  

That infinite screen, of course, is the night sky -- the inky depths of space containing the countless glittering stars, most of which are also enormous suns hurtling along inside our own massive whirlpool of a galaxy, and some of which are not stars at all but galaxies in their own right, located at almost-inconceivable distances from our own.

When we stare up into the heavens at night, we are truly staring into infinity. And that is one reason why, as much benefit as we may derive from what we see on the various screens which surround us in our daily life, we should also endeavor -- as much as it is possible for us to do so -- to devote some time to watching the infinitely-big theater which plays out over our heads each and every clear night of the year.

Presently, there is a special array of stars and constellations making their way across that glorious stage. In fact, at this time of year in the time period around midnight, we can look up and see the layout of the stars which pioneering astro-theologian Robert Taylor believed to have been the foundation for the Christmas story of the birth in the manger. 

On pages 43 and 44 of the collection of his lectures published under the title Devil's Pulpit, he explains that the sun is, metaphorically speaking, described in ancient myth as being "born" at the midnight hour three days after winter solstice, when it finally begins to ascend back towards the top of its annual path, from the lowest point that it marks at winter solstice. And the zodiac constellation that was at the very top of the arc at the midnight hour on that special night two thousand years ago would have been the zodiac constellation containing a special cluster of stars known as the Beehive Cluster, but also known in ancient times as Praesepe, or "the Manger." 

Thus the sun, which is located at the exact other side of our planet when we look out to the top of the ecliptic band of the zodiac at the midnight hour, could be said to be "born" at the moment that the Manger was crossing that special summit-point on the zodiac's arc at midnight three days after winter solstice (midnight on December 24th).

The ages-long motion of precession (the phenomenon which causes the "precession of the equinoxes") acts to "delay" the background of stars from reaching the same point in the heavens on any selected day and time from one year to the next. In other words, if we are accustomed to seeing a certain star at the transit-point (the top of its arc) on a certain day and time each year (such as midnight on December 24th), the slow but inexorable motion of precession will delay its arrival at that point over the years -- but by such a tiny degree that it will only be delayed by one degree in 71.6 years. 

That means that if a certain star is located at transit (straight up from due south on our planet, if we are in the northern hemisphere, or crossing the imaginary line in the sky that arcs up from due south and over our heads through the north celestial pole and back down into the horizon at due north) at a certain specific time on the same date each year, it will be only one degree "delayed" from reaching that point on the same date at the same time, seventy-one-plus years later. More on this phenomenon is discussed in this previous post, and in several other places on the web.

Because of this delaying action, and the passage of thousands of years, the situation in the sky that prevailed at midnight on December 24th thousands of years ago has been "delayed" and would not be visible now on that date in the same way that it was back then. But you can go outside now at the beginning of February and see the sky at midnight with the constellations in their places, as Robert Taylor believes they were arranged for the turnaround of the sun's path after the three-day "pause" at the winter solstice, back when the ancient texts describing the birth in the manger were imparted to humanity.

You can find the beautiful Beehive Cluster in the constellation of Cancer the Crab at or near its transit-point (its highest point on its arc across the sky) right around midnight at this time of year. As you do so, you can also look to the west and see Orion and his three belt-stars (the "Three Kings") sinking down into the western horizon (ahead of them, more easily seen in the hours before midnight, you can see the glorious Pleiades). And you can look to the east and see the rising form of Virgo the Virgin, made more easy to locate by the presence of mighty Jupiter near the top of her head, and her outstretched arm marked by the star Vindemiatrix, which can be shown to have been envisioned as a divine child sitting in her lap in more than one ancient myth-system.

The situation at or near midnight at this time of year is diagrammed for you in the star-chart above, which is depicted for an observer in the northern hemisphere at about 35.6N latitude, looking towards the south (east thus being to the left and west to the right as we look at the image). If you want to locate the dazzling Beehive (and I highly recommend you give it a try, if it is at all possible for you to do so), the best way to find it is to look between the majestic head of Leo the Lion and the parallel forms of Gemini the Twins.

There are some previous posts which go into more detail on locating the Beehive: this one from 2014  goes into pretty extensive detail. The image above shows you the location of Gemini from Orion, which you should not have too much trouble in locating, and the form of Leo the Lion can be found by looking for the brilliant orb of Jupiter in the east part of the sky. The distance in the heavens between the mouth of Leo and the heads of the Twins is not very great: in that space between them is the very dim form of Cancer the Crab, and in the head of the Crab is the Beehive. You will almost see it "by intuition" with your naked eye, it is so faint -- but you should be able to "intuit" its presence in that space, if you are in an area that is dark enough. You will need a pretty dark location in order to see it (those living in big cities will have to drive away from the city lights, if that is possible to do for you).

I believe that the best way to try to see these heavenly objects is actually to lie down on your back, either on the ground or on a lawn chair: looking up at them while standing, especially if looking for the more difficult-to-spot objects, is pretty uncomfortable. The Beehive is absolutely wonderful to look at through binoculars, but it's not fun to try to do that when standing. Lie down and give yourself the best chance to see it and really enjoy it through your binoculars with your head supported by the ground beneath you. The best way to do it is to see it (or "intuit it") with your naked eye, and then look at that spot where you think you see it using the binoculars.

The section of the sky in front of the muzzle of the Lion which contains the Beehive is shown in an enlarged screen-shot, below:

If you are pretty sure of which stars you are looking at in the above representation, you may in fact be able to make out the tiny but gorgeous little cluster of stars that is the Beehive. It's about this size to the naked eye, in my experience. You may despair of seeing it in the night sky after reading that previous sentence, but don't! I believe that, given a clear night and a dark enough location, you may be able to perceive its location if you can find Leo and Gemini and look between them for a faint "blur" of stars, and then train your binoculars where you believe you see that "blur."

Below is the same image shown just above, only with the stars labeled: these are the primary landmarks for you to find the Beehive in the sky:

Even if you have seen the Beehive many times before, going out and looking at it is well worth it, whenever you are able to do so, in my opinion. I personally can look at the Beehive for long periods of time without any loss of fascination and wonder -- it is such a dazzling cluster of heavenly bodies.

Additionally, as mentioned above, you should also be able to see the Pleiades, sinking down towards the west, and from the same point on the ground where you are lying on your back to look at the Beehive (or the same lawn-chair), without really having to get up and move. Just train your eyes to the west and follow the line of Orion's unmistakeable belt of stars. Looking at the Pleiades through binoculars is similarly mesmerizing as is looking at the Beehive.

In addition to being an infinite "big screen," the heavens also point us towards the Infinite World of the spirit. The ancient myths all use the stars and the motions of the constellations in the cycles of the heavens as metaphors to convey to us truths about the Infinite Realm: the realm of spirit, the realm of the gods. It is no accident that they do so: when we look at the sky, we look into the infinite -- and the spirit realm is in fact in-finite, without material measurements or boundaries, as is the human soul.

The ancient wisdom imparted to the human race in all the different myths and sacred traditions from around the world always teaches that we have at all times and circumstances an inner connection to the infinite.

The outstretched or "upraised" arms of the constellation Cancer the Crab, in fact, were (in the world's ancient myth-systems) symbolic of the upraised spirit-aspect of our dual material-spiritual nature. More on this aspect of Cancer the Crab and the upraised arms can be found in previous discussions here and here, for instance.

The act of elevating the spirit-consciousness in ourselves and others -- the awareness (that is) of the fact that we are not "mere matter" or "mere animals" but that we have an immaterial and infinite aspect, as indeed does the entire cosmos around us -- is inherent in the concept of blessing, upon which the world's ancient texts and traditions place a tremendous amount of importance. 

The opposite action, of denying or attempting to "beat down" the awareness of this spiritual aspect in ourselves and others -- falsely trying to reduce a spiritual being into an "object" or a "brute beast" -- is accurately described as cursing. 

Contemplating the stars, and the infinite heavens above (it is safe to say) can and does help us in perceiving the infinite and spiritual aspect in ourselves and in the entire universe around us. 

Time spent on all the "other kinds" of screens (it is also safe to say) does not always do so -- and can in fact point us in the opposite direction, which is actually a false direction (to the extent that it denies the reality of our infinite and spiritual nature, and the infinite and spiritual aspect of the universe around us).

This is not to say that the material found on the "non-infinite" screens of the world is always debasing, or that it is never spiritually uplifting. That is actually not true at all (in fact, you're most likely reading this little essay on a screen, somewhere in the world). 

But, as wonderful as all the other screens on earth might be, we should certainly try to devote some time to contemplating and enjoying that infinitely wonderful heavenly realm which is spread out over our heads, each and every night, if (as said before) it is at all possible for us to do so.

I sincerely hope that doing so will be a blessing to you.

Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

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"Here it has reached the turning-point" -- the celestial map of the soul's spiritual trek

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

We are now drawing so near the point of solstice that some of the great monuments of deep antiquity are already beginning to hint at their stunning alignments to the sunrise of that significant day.

For instance, if you have the opportunity to visit Stonehenge this week, and if the weather conditions permit a view, you can station yourself near Aubrey Hole 40 and look back across the stone circle between Sarsens 22 (on the north or left as you look east) and 21 (to the south or right as you look east), on through the gap between West Trilithon Sarsens 58 and 57 (likewise left and right, respectively) and past Bluestone 69 just beyond them (framing the right edge of the gap, along with the edge of Sarsen 57), you will be able to see the sunrise sight line for the winter solstice as it would have appeared 4,000 years ago, according to the analysis of Professor Gordon Freeman in his landmark text Hidden Stonehenge (you can see all this in the sample chapter he provides

online here, beginning at page 93 and illustrated with full-color photos in image 4-13, 4-14, and 4-15, captured in 1997).

Even if you do not have the opportunity to visit Stonehenge in person, you can still contemplate the silent, massive stones, patiently marking out the great pivots of the year, as they have been doing year after year, as centuries draw on into millennia, and the earth wings its course around the fiery ball of the sun.

You can consider the vision and the skill of those incredible and now-unknowable minds who conceived of this incredible monument, who placed the stones and engineered those alignments which still remain in effect to this day, through all that has come and gone in between -- alignments (some of them) which remained hidden and all but forgotten, until new souls such as Gordon Freeman came and unlocked them to share with humanity once again.

And, considering this almost inconceivable concept, you can also cast your mind around the planet to other ancient places, where temples face the sunrise on winter solstice or mark our sun's rising point with similarly precise alignments: the great Temple of Karnak in Egypt, the mysterious observatory known as the Caracol in what is today called Belize, the incredible passage mound of Newgrange in Ireland, the more recently-discovered Goseck Circle in northern Europe which is thought to date to as early as 4,900 BC (an amazing 6,900 years ago), and many more.

All testify to the ancient and enduring importance of the great turning points of the annual cycle -- turning points which, according to the inspired analysis of Alvin Boyd Kuhn, were marked primarily for their spiritual significance as a metaphorical "map" of the circling path of the soul itself.

When we understand the ancient allegorical outline of the year as a representation of our own soul's journey down into the physical body (the first birth) and a state of spiritual amnesia (a form of spiritual sleep or even, metaphorically speaking, spiritual "death"), followed by the awakening of the realization of our true spiritual nature and the spiritual nature of the seemingly-material universe around in which we find ourselves, followed by our increased communication and communion with our inner divine nature and eventual return to the invisible realm -- then the importance of the great cycle of the year as a beautiful, visible, ever-present reminder to us becomes clear.

Alvin Boyd Kuhn sketches the outline of this ancient spiritual map most clearly and succinctly, perhaps, in his essay entitled Easter: The Birthday of the Gods, discussed in

this previous post and available to read online in various places such as here and here.

The description is so important that it is worth citing at some length:

Using solar symbolism and analogues in depicting the divine soul's peregrinations round the cycles of existence, the little sun of radiant spirit in man being the perfect parallel of the sun in the heavens, and exactly copying its movements, the ancient Sages marked the four cardinal "turns" of its progress round the zodiacal year as epochal stages in soul evolution. As all life starts with conception in mind, later to be extruded into physical manifestation, so the soul that is to be the god of a human being is conceived in the divine mind at the station in the zodiac marking the date of June 21. This is at the "top" of the celestial arc, where mind is most completely detached from matter, meditating in all its "purity."

Then the swing of the movement begins to draw it "downward" to give it the satisfaction of its inherent yearning for the Maya of experience which alone can bring its latent capabilities for the evolution of consciousness to manifestation. Descending then from June it reaches on September 21 the point where its direction becomes straight downward and it there crosses the line of separation between spirit and matter, the great Egyptian symbolic line of the "horizon," and becomes incarnated in material body. Conceived in the aura of Infinite Mind in June, it enters the realm of mortal flesh in September. It is born then as the soul of a human; but at first and for a long period it lies like a seed in the ground before germination, inert, unawakened, dormant, in the relative sense of the word, "dead." This is the young god lying in the manger, asleep in his cradle of the body, or as in the Jonah-fish allegory and the story of Jesus in the boat in the storm on the lake, asleep in the "hold" of the "ship" of life, with the tempest of the body's elemental passions raging all about him. He must be awakened, arise, exert himself and use his divine powers to still the storm, for the elements in the end will obey his mighty will.

Once in the body, the soul power is weighed in the scales of the balance, for the line of the border of the sign of Libra, the Scales, runs across the September equinoctial station. For soul is now equilibrated with body and out of this balance come all the manifestations of the powers and faculties of consciousness. It is soul's immersion in body and its equilibration with it that brings consciousness to function.

Then on past September, like any seed sown in the soil, the soul entity sinks its roots deeper and deeper into matter, for at its later stages of growth it must be able to utilize the energy of matter's atomic force to effectuate its ends for its own spiritual aggrandizement. It is itself to be lifted up to heights of cosmic consciousness, but no more than an oak can exalt its majestic form to highest reaches without the dynamic energization received from the earth at its feet can soul rise up above body without drawing forth the strength of body's dynamo of power. Down, down it descends then through the October, November and December path of the sun, until it stands at the nadir of its descent on December 21.

Here it has reached the turning-point, at which the energies that were stored potentially in it in seed form will feel the first touch of quickening power and will begin to stir into activity. At the winter solstice of the cycle the process of involution of spirit into matter comes to a stand-still -- just what the solstice means in relation to the sun -- and while apparently stationary in its deep lodgment in matter, like moving water locked up in winter's ice, it is slowly making the turn as on a pivot from outward and downward direction to movement first tangential, then more directly upward to its high point in spirit home. 

So the winter solstice signalizes the end of "death" and the rebirth of life in a new generation. It therefore was inevitably named as the time of the "birth of the Divine Sun" in man; the Christ-mas, the birthday of the Messianic child of spirit. The incipient resurgence of the new growth, now based on and fructified by roots struck deep in matter, begins at this "turn of the year," as the Old Testament phrases it, and goes on with increasing vigor as, like the lengthening days of late winter, the sun-power of the spiritual light bestirs into activity the latent capabilities of life and consciousness, and the hidden beauty of the spirit breaks through the confining soil of body and stands out in the fulness of its divine expression on the morn of March 21. [. . .]. (pages 8 - 11 as paginated in this version).

A couple quick things to point out might include, first, the fact that Kuhn does not intend to exclude women when he uses the masculine pronoun (as was the custom in grammatical usage when he was writing) -- he specifically makes this clear at numerous different points in his voluminous writings.

Second, the ancient sacred myths, scriptures, and traditions of humanity from all over the globe can now be conclusively demonstrated to use the above heavenly cycle (and many other heavenly cycles, including those of the moon and planets but most especially the motions of the stars and constellations) as part of their inspired method for conveying to us the most profound and necessary spiritual knowledge to aid us in this incarnate life.

Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote the above incredible explication of the annual solstice and equinox points as spiritual analog for the "soul's peregrinations round the cycles of existence," but while he correctly tied the esoteric stories of the Bible to these stations on our spiritual pilgrimage, the level of celestial correspondence to the specific constellations that can be demonstrated in the stories of the Old and New Testament, and in the other myths of the different cultures all around the globe (probed more thoroughly later by Professors Hertha von Dechend and Giorgio de Santillana in Hamlet's Mill, published in 1969, but without perceiving their spiritual depth in the same way that Kuhn had decades earlier) had not yet been fully appreciated.

The more we begin to understand the specific celestial correspondences of the various gods and goddesses and spiritual beings who are found in the different myths of the world, the more we can begin to see where they might fit and what roles they might play in the great spiritual cycle elucidated by Alvin Boyd Kuhn in the passage above, and better understand their significance and meaning for our own spiritual  growth.

This is actually a matter of absolutely the utmost importance, I am convinced, and opens tremendous new avenues of communication with the incredible ancient wisdom given to humanity in the "high and far off times" (as Giorgio de Santillana called it) -- perhaps in the same millennia that the great stone henges and circles and towers and temples were being erected, or even millennia before that.

I hope that as we approach the powerful and significant turning point of December solstice this year, you will have the opportunity to contemplate these matters at some length and that meditating upon this ancient wisdom will be a blessing to you in your life and in the years to come.

Welcome new visitors from Truth Frequency Radio

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Special thanks to hosts Chris and Sheree Geo of Truth Frequency Radio for having me on their show last night, December 05, 2015.

We covered a range of topics related to the celestial foundations of the world's myths, ancient scriptures, and sacred traditions -- including some more extensive discussion than I have previously published regarding the spiritual message in the story of the inebriation of Noah, pictured above in a painting (oil on canvas) from the early 1600s by Carlo Saraceni (1579 - 1620).

We also went into some extended discussion of the importance of Thomas in the New Testament texts and in Gnostic tradition.

This interview is currently available for online listening or downloading at this link, and for subscribers to their show it will be available for listening or downloading in their show archives indefinitely.

I believe that for all other listeners, it will be available for listening or downloading only so long as it is the most recent interview, after which it enters the archives.

The part of the show containing my conversation with Chris and Sheree begins at about -145:00 (that's "minus one hundred forty-five minutes") on the embedded play bar found at the link above, which looks like this (you can click on this image to go there as well):

To navigate around to different points in time on the show you can simply click anywhere along that blue line with the high-voltage corona discharge resembling a streamer arc between the spark gap of a Tesla coil(which is a form of radio frequency oscillator, and hence highly appropriate for a show entitled "Truth Frequency").

You can also pause the playback at any time by clicking on the triangle inside the blue circle on the left of the play bar, which starts and stops the audio.

Prior to that -104:00 mark in the show, Chris and Sheree discuss various topics of their own. Of course, I don't necessarily agree with everything that anyone else on earth might say, or everything that might be said in that part of the show, but it should be obvious that none of us really ever agrees with anyone else on every single topic, and I believe that we are all here trying to figure out the complex set of data that we encounter as best we can -- I myself have had to change the entire paradigm through which I view the world on more than one occasion, based on new information that I encountered (my first published book, in fact, was written while I still believed that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament were intended to be taken literally, which I obviously no longer see as consistent with the overwhelming evidence in the stars).

I'm personally not comfortable with frequent references to a "New World Order," and suspect that the "Old World Order" might in fact be much more of a concern and a subject which requires careful examination and consideration. 

I also do not believe by any means that everyone in the police is corrupt, which appears to be implied in one of statements in an ad during a break. I actually believe that police forces and militaries are necessary, but I absolutely agree that they can be misused and also deceived (the metaphor of the orangutans and the gorillas in the extremely important original Planet of the Apes film from 1968 is very helpful in this regard, in my opinion -- see additional discussion here).

However, I most definitely agree with the sentiment that Chris expresses at around -108:00 in the portion of the show before I came online, in which he says: 

But the only way to overcome, I should say, is to realize the power that we have -- and to realize the power of unity, as a human species. You know, forget about all of the labels; forget about all of the religions -- forget about everything else, and just start seeing each other for just . . . human beings. And I guarantee you -- they won't be able to bring in a New World Order, because we won't be controlled at that point.

Chris and Sheree were very gracious hosts and I am very grateful to them for inviting me onto the show and allowing me to discuss a subject which I believe to be extremely important to all of the above subjects. They offered some of their own very insightful perspectives during our two hours that led the conversation in what I hope you will agree were some interesting and fruitful directions.

I have not had the opportunity to talk with them before but I think it is clear that they are exploring important questions regarding human consciousness, and seeking to elevate awareness and consciousness through their insights and their work -- a cause that I think we can all agree to be of the utmost importance.

The show ended just as I was getting ready to thank them for having me on to their program -- so, in case it was cut off by the closing music, I would like to express my deep appreciation to Chris and Sheree for having me on to Truth Frequency Radio.

_/\_

Below is a list of links to things that I have previously written about some of the subjects that we touched on during the conversation (and, as mentioned above, we went a little deeper into some of these subjects than I have previously, during one or two parts of the interview):

• Index of Star Myths and their celestial correspondences.
• Constellation outlines published by H. A. Rey and why they are so important (and helpful).
• The esoteric teaching methods of Mr. Miyagi in the original Karate Kid movie.
• The celestial foundations of the story of Noah and his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
• The celestial and zodiacal aspects of the story of the Crossing of the Red Sea.
• More on the "astro-theology" interpretation of the critical figure of Moses, who is related to some extremely central metaphors connected to the celestial figures of Scorpio, Cancer the Crab, the shining column of the Milky Way galaxy, the raising of the Djed column, and the concept of kundalini.
• The metaphor of Thomas in the New Testament and in the Gnostic texts (see discussions here, here and here).
• The Nag Hammadi texts that were buried for centuries at the base of a cliff near a bend in the river Nile in Egypt.
• The evidence that the world's star myths are expressing a view of reality that is essentially shamanic (or that has been labeled as "shamanic" because this view has survived in shamanic cultures, but can actually be shown to be present and active in virtually all the ancient wisdom of humanity).
• The assertion that the Bible itself contains abundant evidence of this same "shamanic worldview."
• The evidence that the person we call Paul may have been expressing a view which can be broadly categorized as both Gnostic and essentially shamanic in nature.
• The evidence that human beings are actually designed to have an awareness of and an internal connection to the invisible, infinite realm -- and that there are an extremely wide variety of techniques and methods for engaging this ability.
• The Bhagavad Gita, its celestial foundations, and some aspects of its important insights into life in this incarnate state.
• The theme of blessing and not cursing, found running across and through so many of the ancient traditions of humanity.

Welcome to all new friends who found this page through the Truth Frequency Radio broadcast or website!

Namaste.

To keep the connection alive between this world . . . and reality

image: Wikimedia commons (link and link to background image).

In Peter Kingsley's newly-released series of lectures entitled The Elders, one of the central messages running through all of the lectures is the assertion that the west has lost its connection to the real world which is behind this material facade, and has thus lost its connection to its ancient set of "original instructions."

The consequences are as obvious as they are tragic.

The consequences are also extremely grave: because, as the ancient myths of humanity make very clear, the invisible world -- the realm of the gods -- is in fact that true fount or origin of all life and blessing in the visible, material world.

Elaborating upon a theme which he returns to in many of his talks, he explains that the role of the prophet or shaman in cultures which have not lost their connection with the sacred realm was not necessarily to "predict the future," (a common misconception) but rather to uncover the often-hidden point in the past which led to a divergence from the pattern given to us from the Other Realm, and which is the source of whatever grievous problems we are now as a result experiencing in the present.

In one of the lectures, he illustrates this concept using the voyage to the realm of Persephone, queen of the underworld (pictured above [possibly], from an ancient sculpture thought to date to about 470 BC), described by the ancient seer Parmeneides (discussed in depth in Dr. Kinglsey's 1999 book, In the Dark Places of Wisdom), and also using a very relevant example from the Iliad:

And if you want to have a very simple example, a very good example, of what a prophet is (many of you are familiar with my books), it is there in Parmeneides' poem, where he goes down into the underworld, he is taken to meet the Goddess, she gives him all of this extraordinary teaching, and then she says, "Take it away -- carry it away. Just speak it on behalf of me. Don't change anything -- don't mess with it. Just speak on behalf of me." That is what prophecy is.

And then this issue about telling the future. Very, very interesting -- because we have one almost definition, in ancient Greek, about what prophecy really is.  It was one of the very rare moments where Aristotle actually had a spark of understanding about something.

Prophecy is not about the future. Prophets don't talk about the future. What they do is: they talk about the past -- which has been hidden. Things which have happened -- that have been covered over, and no longer clear. That is what the real prophets do: they speak about the past, but the past that has been forgotten. 

And you can see this if you look: you can see, say, with Empedocles -- this man I'm so connected with. As a prophet, he tries to point out to people what they have forgotten, what has gone wrong, what is missing -- why they don't function in the world anymore, why there is so much suffering, disease, disharmony, misery: because we've forgotten our divine source. He traces it all back.

And you can see it also at the very beginning of Homer's Iliad, when there is a whole plague. The soldiers are devastated, by sickness and plague. They're suffering; they're dying. And what happens, in this case? They find a prophet, and they ask him what's going wrong. And he says: "Apollo -- these are the arrows of Apollo. He's shot these arrows of plague, into the troops, because you did something wrong, you offended Apollo." And then it all becomes very simple. Because you see, once you know what's wrong, then you can sort it out -- you can make amends. It's very, very precise. That is what prophecy is.

And if you look at this process -- I've just said a little about it -- if you look at this real process of prophecy, you see that this is -- or this used to be -- the corrective element in human life. This is what brought people back into connection with the divine. 

But, Peter Kingsley explains, the west at some point in the very distant past jettisoned the connection with that invisible realm, the real world that is behind this material realm, and the source of all life and all blessing, and deliberately cut off the corrective element of prophecy: the process of going into the other world to find out what is wrong.

Where and when that "break in contact" -- that terrible disconnection from the real process of prophecy -- actually took place is a matter worthy of careful consideration. I would argue that it is one of those "things which have happened" that Peter Kingsley talks about in the quotation above "that have been covered over, and no longer clear." 

I believe that there are a number of such "things from the past which have been covered over" that we urgently need to uncover and deal with if we are going to have a hope of "sorting it out" and "making amends," as Dr. Kingsley puts it in his talk.

I would suggest that the shuttering of Oracle at Delphi and the cessation of the Eleusinian Mysteries, during the reign of the emperor Theodosius is probably an important place to look, in what we today label the fourth century (in AD 390 and AD 392, respectively). 

That was a very decisive and revealing step in the history of literalist Christianity -- in conjunction with the power of the Roman Empire -- which represented the first of a long series of moves to shut down the channels by which certain specially attuned men and women could go directlyto the invisible world to gain insight and affect changes that could be achieved in no other way, and for the benefit of the society.

What began there at Delphi and Eleusis -- the deliberate blockading of the doorways given to humanity, by which we can access the other realm -- would then be repeated over and over, with all the other avenues of connection to the divine world which had been given to other cultures as well. The campaign continued throughout other parts of Europe (where the Druidic and the Celtic and the Norse and the far-northern shamanic traditions of people such as the Sami were systematically stamped out) and then on to other parts of the world, including the Americas, the Pacific, and on into the lands far to the west of the Americas and far to the east of the Mediterranean.

That is the legacy that has brought us to this particular point in history -- a point in history which must be understood in light of that ancient disconnect that took place in the early centuries of the cultures that became what today we call "the west." This is the ancient disconnect which Peter Kingsley argues is at the heart of the very serious problems we see around us right now.

I would humbly suggest that a part of the solution is the very solid and very abundant evidence that can now be shown which proves quite beyond a reasonable doubt the scriptures of the Bible are built  upon the very same system of celestial metaphor which is found in virtually every other culture on earth.  

This is evidence which proves, in other words, that the very scriptures that the literalists have been using as a justification for shutting down the channels of communication with the invisible realm are in fact teaching the very same worldview that is taught by the myths of ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, ancient Scandinavia, ancient Gaul, ancient Ireland, ancient Sumer, ancient Babylon, ancient Persia, ancient China, ancient India, ancient Japan, and preserved in the sacred traditions of the cultures of Africa, Australia, the Americas, the Pacific, and the vast steppes and plains and forests and deserts of Asia.

As the vignette Peter Kingsley offers from the Iliad makes very clear, the ancients understood that when the invisible realm is disregarded or (even worse) disrespected, the results are inevitably catastrophic. If the infinite realm -- the realm of the gods, the "seed realm," the realm of pure potentiality -- is in fact the fount or source of everything which manifests itself here in the material realm, then it is the source of life and vitality and health and blessing. 

Thus, when Agamemnon chooses to disregard the order of the universe by insulting and disrespecting the priest of Apollo (and, in doing so, disrespecting Apollo himself), the Achaeans assembled under the temporary command of Agamemnon are visited with plague and death by the Sun God (the destruction of health, and the destruction of life).

As Peter Kingsley also points out in the quotation cited above, the Achaeans cannot by themselves figure out how to stop this deadly problem. The answer cannot be found in the material world alone. 

But, they know what to do: they summon Calchas, whom the poem calls "the clearest by far of all the seers who scan the flight of birds" (I. 80-81). 

Calchas is, in fact, a follower of Apollo -- and Calchas brings back the answer from the divine realm: "The god's enraged because Agamemnon spurned his priest, and refused to free his daughter, he refused the ransom" (I. 111-12, both quotations from the superlative translation of Professor Robert Fagles).

It is worth noting that this example of prophecy is not a matter of "trying to have success in battle" (the entire text of the Iliad indicates that war itself is an aberration, even an abomination) -- the issue at hand is one of life itself, a question of survival.

If the source of the problem, located in the realm of the gods, is not understood and addressed, then the entire culture is in very real danger of being completely wiped out.

This matter that Peter Kingsley is bringing to our attention is a matter of life and death.

That is why he says, at a different point in the very valuable lecture series linked above, regarding this very specific definition of the prophetic tradition (which I would argue has much in common with what is also referred to as the very broad "shamanic tradition," since it was in the often geographically-distant shamanic cultures that this prophetic tradition escaped the tender mercies of the "western cultures" for the longest, even into recent centuries and in some places into the present day):

Prophecy -- prophetic tradition -- is life. And if you don't understand, or I don't understand, what prophetic tradition really is, we don't understand what life is. We have a concept of what life is, but we do not understand what life really is. If you understand what life is, you understand prophetic tradition. If you understand prophetic tradition, you understand what life is. And you realize, that all of human existence hangs from the thread of prophecy. Because the prophets are those who keep the connection alive between this world and reality.

I believe that Peter Kingsley is absolutely right about the central importance of the connection between this material world and the real world that is behind this one -- and that he is absolutely right that the central problem which absolutely must be addressed in the west is the covering over of history: the history of that very disconnect, and its unaddressed consequences.

Ahimsa, blessing, and the coils of the Python

image: Wikimedia commons (link). 

In an important episode in the Mahabharata, we see the most physically-powerful and menacing of the five Pandava brothers -- Bhima whose might is equal to that of ten thousand elephants -- exulting in his strength as he plows through the woods, frightening the animals with his loud whoops and shouts, and pursuing even the mighty snakes into their lairs.

Then he encounters a serpent who turns out to be more than his match.

We find this episode related in Book 3 of the Mahabharata, beginning in section 177:

Then the mighty Bhimasena, like unto the Lord of the Celestials, saw a serpent of colossal proportions, living in one of the mountain fastnesses and covering the cave with its body and causing one's hair to stand on end. It had its huge body stretched like a hillock, and it possessed gigantic strength, and its body was speckled with spots and it had a turmeric-like color and a deep copper-colored mouth of the form of a cave supplied with four teeth; and with glaring eyes it was constantly licking the corners of its mouth. And it was the terror or all animated beings and it looked like the very image of the Destroyer Yama; and with the hissing noise of its breath it lay as if rebuking. And seeing Bhima draw so near to him, the serpent, all on a sudden, became greatly enraged, and that goat-devouring snake violently seized Bhimasena in his grip. Then by virtue of the boon that had been received by the serpent, Bhimasena with his body in the serpent's grip, instantly lost all consciousness. Unrivalled by that of others, the might of Bhimasena's arms equalled the might of ten thousand elephants combined. But Bhima, of great prowess, being thus vanquished by the snake, trembled slowly, and was unable to exert himself. And that one of mighty arms and of leonine shoulders, though possessed of the strength of ten thousand elephants, yet seized by the snake, and overpowered by virtue of the boon, lost all strength. He struggled furiously to extricate himself, but did not succeed in any wise baffling this [snake].

Bhima was, as Everett McGill might say, "in a tight spot."

The serpent informs Bhima that he was once a respected sage, in fact Bhima's distant ancestor Nahusha, but was being punished for his pride by being changed into a serpent.

He also informs Bhima that he must devour him.

For those who wish to read the entire Mahabharata before they find out whether or not the snake has Bhima for dinner, stop here and come back in a few months when you've finished.

For the rest of the readers (or for those who have read the Mahabharata already and know the outcome), turning to section 178 and 179 we learn that Bhima's brother Yudhisthira the just, noticing the absence of Bhima and experiencing a series of omens that warn Yudhistira that Bhima is in grave danger, comes looking for him and finds the mighty one coiled in the grip of the great serpent.

Realizing that this can be no ordinary snake, Yudhistira addresses it respectfully, to learn how it can possibly hold the invincible Bhima helpless in its grasp. Nahusha informs Yudhistira of his true identity as their distant ancestor, the fifth in descent from the moon in fact, and tells the eldest Pandava that he can only be released from his serpent-form by one who can correctly answer questions regarding the nature of the incarnation of the soul and its release.

Yudhistira, who has spent his life in careful contemplation of just such questions, and who has moreover spent much time in discussion with the forest ascetics who have chosen a life in pursuit of spiritual matters, says to Nahusha, "Ask away!"

What follows perhaps is best to read in the Mahabharata itself (following the links above, and if you are able to read Sanskrit you can also find this passage in the original language, beginning here in section 178). 

In summary, however, the mighty serpent asks Yudhistira how one may achieve transcendence from the cycle of incarnation (he firsts asks Yudhistira who is a true Brahmana, and receives the answer that it is not in fact determined by birth or by caste but rather by purity and virtuous conduct, which is an important subject for another discussion).

Yudhistira answers Nahusha, in section 180 that the one who achieves the transcendent state is the one who "bestows alms on proper objects, speaks kind words and tells the truth, and abstains from doing injury to any creature."

Thus we see that the ancient wisdom teaches us that acts and words which can be categorized as blessing are critical to our purpose here in this incarnate life, as is the principle of doing no injury to others.

The word used for doing no harm is ahimsa.

Hearing this answer, and having finally found one who can put it into words, Nahusha is released from his long millennia of bondage in the form of a serpent, and ascends into the higher realms. Bhima is freed from the enervating coils of the enchanted python, after he had already resigned himself to being devoured for his carelessness and pride.

This episode, like nearly all the others in the Mahabharata (and in all the world's ancient myths, scriptures and sacred traditions) can definitely be found to have its origin in the celestial pattern of the stars and constellations. In this particular case, Bhima is almost certainly played by the important constellation Ophiucus, whom we have encountered previously in our examinations of the story of Jonah and the gourd, as well as the story of Mukasa in Africa and indeed in the events of the life of the Buddha.

Note the details of the serpent's initial description, how he is said to have its huge body shaped into the form of a hillock , and indeed to cover the entire mouth of a cave -- both of which can be seen as clues regarding his celestial identity. He also is described as having four teeth, which almost certainly refers to the four stars in the head of the serpent held by Ophiucus in the sky. Additionally, the great snake is described as looking like the very image of Yama the Destroyer, who can also by this and other clues from the scriptures of ancient India be identified with Ophiucus.

Furthermore, the constellation Ophiucus -- while usually envisioned as holding a serpent -- can also be envisioned as having a serpent wrapped around his body, just as Bhima does once Nahusha coils himself about the great hero and takes away his strength.

Of course, you probably won't be able to figure any of that out for yourself if you use one of the many "standard" diagrams for the constellation Ophiucus (which are usually terrible -- see for example this outline).

However, if you use the outstanding system first published by H. A. Rey in 1952, then you can begin to speak "the language of the ancient myths." Below is the outline of Ophiucus as envisioned by H. A. Rey (and superimposed upon the stars as seen in the open-source planetarium app stellarium.org).

Having determined (just in case it was not clearly evident from the presence of a talking serpent) that this episode from the Mahabharata is not intended to be understood as literal history but that it is a celestial allegory, we can then begin to ask ourselves what it might mean -- why was it given to us, and what knowledge is it intended to convey?

Without going into too much depth (the reader is invited to contemplate all the profound implications of this story for himself or herself, as with all the other sacred wisdom given to humanity in the form of the ancient myths), it seems clear enough that this story depicts our human condition, bound within the coils of incarnation.

Both Nahusha, who has been turned into a serpent, and Bhima, who is trapped within the coils of the serpent and finds himself deprived of his accustomed celestial strength, can be seen as depicting the condition of the soul when it comes down from the realm of pure spirit and is bound in a body made of the lower elements of earth and water (clay) -- "this mortal coil," as Shakespeare calls it in Hamlet.

The serpent, of course, is a perfect symbol of the cycles of incarnation, because it sheds its skin as if sliding into a new form and leaving the old one behind, over and over again.

It is also a perfect symbol of our incarnate condition in that it binds and constricts its prey (Nahusha is described as a mighty python or constrictor), just as this material existence seeks to wrap its charms about us and cause us to become entangled in the exigencies of the physical life and its charms, robbing us of our memory of our celestial or spiritual nature (and note that Bhima is held more by the charms of the mystical serpent than by its actual strength, and that when he falls into its clutches he is in fact described as losing consciousness for a period of time before recovering his wits).

Fans of The Matrix (a movie which came up during my recent Grimerica interview) might envision Neo when he is still in the grip of "The Matrix" itself -- penetrated and held fast by its many hideous serpentine coils.

In this episode from the Mahabharata, of course, the most important aspect of the entire encounter is the question of how one can overcome the coils of the great serpent -- how one escapes the curse (both for Bhima and for Nahusha, who has been made to crawl on the ground as a python in order to learn something for his own benefit and eventual transcendence).

The answer is given quite plainly in the question-and-answer between Nahusha and Yudhistira. Clearly, the ancient text seems to imply that the twin concepts of blessing and ahimsa are absolutely critical to our escape from the coils of the python, and from the danger of its eventually devouring us.

But note also that the serpent is a powerful symbol of wisdom around the world (including in the texts of ancient India, as well as in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, where we are admonished to be as wise or cunning as serpents), and that the concept of raising the serpent

is central in Yogic and other spiritual practice (see previous discussion here for example), in the deity Okeanos and Acheloos (also spelled Achelous) in ancient Greece -- who echoes a similar divine force found in ancient Egypt and related to the divinity of the Nile River itself but also to the heavenly river of the Milky Way and to the internal kundalini within the "microcosm" of each and every human being -- and also in the episode of the serpent on the pole described in the book of Numbers and referenced again in the New Testament (and many more examples can be found around the world).

Thus the idea of being "cast down" into this world -- either as a serpent or "unconscious within the coils of the serpent" -- and then overcoming and "raising the serpent" through right conduct that involves being a blessing, invoking blessing, and not doing violence, is a vital central theme throughout the world's ancient wisdom . . . and therefore was seen as being vital and central to our own acquisition of the gnosis or understanding or transformation which is our soul's purpose in coming into the material world in the first place.

Ultimately, I believe that this concept is identical to that which is stressed throughout the Bhagavad Gita (which is part of the Mahabharata, and can be found in book 6 of the epic), regarding the admonition -- constantly presented to Arjuna by the Lord Krishna -- to do what is right without attachment.

This is worth contemplating deeply.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Scott Onstott reveals the profound message of Leonardo da Vinci and his art

Scott Onstott has two new books out relating to the divine proportion, one entitled The Divine Proportion and one exploring Leonardo da Vinci's incredible encoding of the divine proportion into his paintings entitled Secrets in Plain Sight: Leonardo da Vinci.

Scott's amazing work includes his analysis of the significant and esoteric proportions, patterns, and geometries found around the world in the location and design of cities, parks, monuments, and buildings, which he has detailed in his extremely popular video presentations entitled Secrets in Plain Sight, Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Scott also analyzes sacred geometries, proportions and patterns present in the natural world, including in the relationships of the earth, moon, sun, and the planets of our solar system.

His work has been discussed on this blog previously here: "Scott Onstott and the metaphor of form."

I have been working my way through Secrets in Plain Sight: Leonardo da Vinciand highly recommend it for your own careful consideration. 

It is worth pondering long and deeply.

Scott begins with a brief but powerful summary of the incredible achievements and ongoing importance of Leonardo himself (1452 - 1519).

He then explains the concept of the divine proportion (the golden ratio, the proportion of which is designated by the Greek letter phi) and its mysterious qualities -- with accompanying diagrams and labeled illustrations that should make its properties more understandable than perhaps any discussion of the golden ratio that you have encountered before (Scott is a trained architect and a teacher and author on the subject of architectural visualization software and techniques).

The discussion reveals the mysterious, unchanging, infinite, and self-contained properties of the divine proportion, and why and how it conveys aspects of what we might call the Infinite Realm, the Divine Realm, the Invisible Realm. 

As you open your eyes to what is being presented, you will realize that phi does not just point us towards the Infinite: in many ways it actually manifests the Infinite Realm in itself, and impresses it upon our deeper understanding.

Scott then presents stunning evidence that demonstrates convincingly, beyond any doubt, that Leonardo da Vinci incorporated this divine ratio -- and its unfolding in the infinitely self-generating golden rectangles and the golden spiral that they create (the book shows how this spiral generates) -- into his art, over and over again, and with a degree of precision that indicates he knew exactly what he was doing.

But why?

Clearly, the golden ratio resonates powerfully with us -- our own bodies, and many aspects of the universe around us (perhaps every aspect of the universe around us), exhibit the golden ratio or phi on nearly every level. Scott even visually illustrates the way that DNA, the basic code of all known life, unfolds according to the golden ratio at its most fundamental level.

The golden ratio is aesthetically pleasing and attractive, even if we do not consciously recognize its presence.

But as Scott shows the golden rectangles and spirals present in the art of Leonardo da Vinci, he uncovers evidence that da Vinci was incorporating this divine proportion to convey and even more powerful message. As Scott says in the description of Secrets in Plain Sight: Leonardo da Vinci on his website

here:

Leonardo's secret pointing to the divine proportion's divisions to physical and illuminated third eyes suggests he saw the divine not just in a transcendent heaven, but immanently in the human body and in the world.

That sentence is worth reading a few times for full effect.

What Scott's illustrations in the book, in which he overlays golden spirals upon the artwork of da Vinci, reveals quite clearly is that the spirals almost inevitably concentrate upon one eye of a human subject in the painting, or (even more frequently) upon the point of the "third eye" in the center of the forehead.

The implication, as Scott makes plain in the quoted sentence above, is that Leonardo da Vinci was conveying the message, using phi as the representative of the Divine and the Infinite, that the very same Infinite which unfolds in every aspect of the physical universe around us (and which shows that the Invisible Realm is present at every point in the seemingly-material cosmos) is also present in each and every man and woman: the divine in us.

And, as has already been said above, when da Vinci "drops phi" into his artwork, he is not just placing a symbol of the Divine or the Infinite into the art: he is putting an actual unfolding of Infinity right onto the canvas! The golden proportion actually is infinite, in and of itself, and it actually does begin to generate infinite spirals and an infinite rectangle-series, the moment you place it onto the page!

Note carefully what Scott Onstott is saying in that sentence above about the presence of this Infinity in both the heavens and the human: da Vinci recognized that it was present everywhere, both on the incredible scale of the heavens, and in the proportions of the human body, and that it "spirals inwards" to our eye (the "window to the soul") to suggest that the divine is there as well.

The divine ratio is present in every strand of DNA, and in the astronomical distances and scales with which our infinite universe is framed. It is operating everywhere and at all times, effortlessly unfolding and contracting, outward to the most distant galaxies and inward to the secret universe of our interior world.

The illustrations in Scott's book must be seen to be fully appreciated. I would suggest that a physical copy belongs on the shelf of every library, public or private, home or university.

But that's not all.

Because there appear to be even more "secrets in plain sight" hidden in the artwork of Leonardo da Vinci (and conveying the very same message of the inner connection to the Infinite, the inner connection to the Divine), because I would argue that some of the artwork that Scott examines also reveals da Vinci's understanding of the esoteric celestial system of metaphor operating at the foundation of the sacred stories and scriptures of the human race.

The very first painting by Leonardo that Scott presents in his book (the paintings are presented and discussed in chronological progression) clearly reveals da Vinci's awareness of the celestial metaphor underlying his subject, which is The Anunciation by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, depicted in Annunciazione by da Vinci, 1472:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Not only does this painting show that the twenty-year-old Leonardo was already masterfully incorporating phi proportions and spirals in the composition of his art (as Scott Onstott's diagrams demonstrate), but it also appears to indicate that the artist was very familiar with the esoteric connection between the Biblical personages and the constellations of the heavens.

I have already published an extensive analysis of the celestial correspondences in the critically-important New Testament story of the Annunciation, in which the angelic messenger declares the coming of the Divine to Mary -- the Divine made to dwell in the flesh. 

That analysis shows that Gabriel is almost certainly associated with Mercury or Hermes -- the messenger of the gods in ancient Latin and Greek mythology -- and the closest planet to the sun (which is why Gabriel explains that he "stands in the presence of God" in Luke 1:19). Gabriel, like Mercury, is always depicted carrying a wand (often in the form of certain long-stemmed flowers, in the artwork depicting Gabriel).

But although Gabriel is almost certainly associated with the actual planet Mercury (which of all the planets can most accurately be said to "stand in the presence" of our blazing sun), he can also be identified with a specific constellation in our night sky, and one who appears above the constellation who almost certainly corresponds to the Virgin Mary.

Leonardo da Vinci seems to have been well aware of these celestial correspondences, simply from the way he depicts his subjects in The Annunciation, with Gabriel kneeling and extending his hand in a distinctive gesture (while also holding the flower-wand in his other hand), and Mary seated in a distinctive posture herself, while extending one arm towards Gabriel (and turning her head "just so," in a way highly reminiscent of her celestial counterpart).

Take a look at this portion of the sky, containing the important constellations Virgo the Virgin, and her constant companion Bootes the Herdsman:

Can you see da Vinci's Annunciazione in the stars depicted above?

How about now:

The angel Gabriel is almost certainly played by the constellation Bootes, who appears to be in a seated position in the sky but who is often depicted as kneeling in Star Myths from around the world, such as when he plays the role of the Buddha in Asia and Mukasa in Africa (analyzed in this previous post) or the role of Bodhidharma (also known as Da Mo or Daruma, analyzed in this previous post).

The angel is clearly depicted as kneeling in Leonardo's 1472 painting of the Annunciation.

The angel is also holding a wand, which corresponds to the long "pipe" of the constellation of the Herdsman shown above. This wand is the same feature which appears as the flute of the god Krishna in the scriptures of ancient India, as discussed in this previous post.

You can also find depictions of Krishna (including statues and icons) in which the outstretched hand of the Lord Krishna makes a hand gesture which is very similar to the distinctive hand-gesture that the angel Gabriel is making in this artwork by Leonardo da Vinci (and which is seen in many, many other depictions of the angel Gabriel and the Annunciation down through the centuries). Here's one, from a statue of Krishna with one upraised hand:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Note that if you look carefully, you can also see that Krishna is holding a flute in a hand on the other side from his upraised hand. 

[All of these connections between Gabriel, Hermes/Mercury, Buddha, Da Mo (or Daruma) and other Bootes-figures from the Star Myths of the world should show quite convincingly that all these sacred texts and mythologies are united in their foundation and their esoteric message (contrary to what has often been taught, especially by those who wish to take the ancient myths and scriptures literally, instead of esoterically).]

Behind the seated (or kneeling) form of Bootes in the night sky is the distinctive arc of the Northern Crown, or Corona Borealis. At first, I thought that this arc-shaped constellation might show up in the painting by da Vinci of the angel as the arc in the angel's wings, but after further consideration I decided that Leonardo might actually be envisioning the wings to be formed by an interesting and somewhat unique way of connecting the stars along the front edge of the constellation Hercules. If so, then I believe that the Northern Crown is probably functioning as the halo of the angel.

Turning now to the figure of Mary herself, it is fairly intuitive to connect her with the stars of Virgo the Virgin. Previous posts have discussed the importance of the connection inherent in her name with the word for "sea" or "ocean," and how the celestial Virgin stands at the edge of the metaphorical "sea" in the heavenly cycle of the zodiac (see the discussion here for example). 

But Leonardo includes enough clues in his painting to demonstrate beyond a doubt that he is referring to the outline of Virgo in the heavens. 

If you look at the seated posture of the constellation Virgo, and then look at the angle at which da Vinci has chosen to depict his Virgin Mary in Annunciazione, you will see that one would be hard-pressed to paint a more accurately depiction of the constellation than he has in his work. Her legs are apart and parallel, her body bends at approximately the same angle, and her outstretched arm points towards Gabriel just as the outstretched arm of Virgo points towards Bootes in the sky.

Below is a detail of Mary from da Vinci's painting, with the outline of Virgo superimposed. Note that even the angle of Mary's head in the painting and the way in which she has it slightly turned evokes the  form of the zodiac Virgin:

I would thus argue that Scott Onstott's title accurately describes this aspect of Leonardo's work as well: da Vinci is "hiding" these incredible secrets in plain sight!

I would also argue that by incorporating these celestial patterns, Leonardo is reinforcing the very same message that Scott argues Leonardo is conveying through his incorporation of the divine proportion in his paintings:

Just like the ancient myths and sacred texts themselves, Leonardo is bringing down the denizens of the celestial realm and incarnating them in the human form!

He is declaring that the Infinite and the Divine dwell in human flesh. The stars above evoke the Infinite, and we ourselves reflect the stars (as above, so below).

Just as the universe unfolds on the proportions of phi on planetary and galactic scales, and just as we ourselves reflect this same proportion in our bodies and even our strands of DNA, the Infinite and Divine realm that interpenetrates the material cosmos also unfolds like a spiral inside our inner universe (converging on the window of our soul, our physical eye or our spiritual "third eye").

I am extremely grateful to Scott Onstott for writing Secrets in Plain Sight: Leonardo da Vinci, and for bringing home in such a visual and understandable way the genius and the ongoing importance of Leonardo and his work, and most importantly his message -- the same message, ultimately, as that brought by the angel Gabriel: the message of the divine coming down to earth, and dwelling in men and women.

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In addition to ordering them from Scott's own website (linked above), you can also find Scott's books on Barnes & Noble and on Amazon.